3.4 About the Interrogative and–WH words, I Have some Opinion

If a person kindly approach you for a directive order, a simple Yes/No answer would get you a powerful slap in your face. Despite being red and tendered, you might benefit from an unclogged ear treatment from your wife to assure that you were listening to her. To avoid receiving a vague answer which is a yes or a no, there exists the Interrogative- the art of Questioning in English. Interrogative is the noun or then adjective form of Interrogate, and that also changes into Interrogation. When you committed a crime, you were interrogated for investigation purpose. An interrogation is conducted by law enforcement or one with examining authority such as polices and lawyers etc. As depicted from being Interrogative, the art of asking a question should be innovative in forms.

There are two types of question: A polar Question such as Yes or No, and A Nil like I don’t know. Think about how you speak, shaking with fear and dare to rise your first question. The typical sentence structure is as follows: Modal Verb or Auxiliary Verb + subject + base form of the main verb. Examples like: “Have you been to the mall last Sunday?” | “Were the cats meowing in front of your bedroom last night?” | “Can you help to move your car?” | “Do you love me?” | These examples had a polar setting to one end opposing to another and had no other alternatives. Blunt and straightforward, isn’t it! In plain English setting, we tend to present us in the positive domain. But in such polarized setting, there isn’t any room for us to elevate our tone from negativity if it is a No answer. It seemed like an old man in poverty tore down onto his armchair at the last moment of life.

To twist the tone of your question, you need to first raise someone’s interest. You can use the Interrogative in negative form. By doing so, you are asserting partially acknowledgment of facts while implying a validation from the back. Examples like: “Haven’t you been to the mall last Sunday?” | “Weren’t the cats meowing in front of your bedroom yesterday?” | “Can’t you help to move your car?” | “Don’t you love me?” | These negative Interrogative provided a much closer apprehension to the scenario. How do you feel while comparing to the above? You would have a moment of pause, think about the question, and form your answer with a stronger validation to your claim. It changes from a Why to Why-not perspective. You can also enlarge your interrogation scope to a broader extend.

Speaking of the -WH words, I have some thoughts about them. We tell our story based on the following: who, what, where, when, why. We called them the Interrogatives as it centered around adverbs, pronouns, or any determines. Yet, like interrogating the linked suspects, we use determines to describe the sequential causation of the question. Like 1) “Where is Peter going?” >> “Peter is going to the kitchen to pick up some side dishes”.>> 2) “What/Which side-dishes does he pick up?” Of the first question, I used where like when, how, and why as an adverb -be. To determine the question of the object in the second part, I used what/which/whose. We pinpointed the object as the question’s determinant, like “which book are you reading?”. Once we are referring to the possessor, you may use whose, like “whose book is this?” Despite functioning as determiner, whose, like who, which, and what, can be used as pronouns by referencing the subject or the object. Such as “which parts of the bible are you reading?”. In this case, we specify the part for more clarify, unlike in the determiners one above that looked at broader frame.

Now there comes the most interesting part about Whom. If you looked up online, you would get the following explanation: Whom was the object form of who. I bet many of you have gotten a headache retrieving the definition from the dictionary. In practice, rules are often omitted. Remember the pronoun him, them and her (in some way) that ends with an -m, we often use whom with a preposition at the front. Imagine I have a borrowed book from my male classmate next to me. I may ask “who should I return the book to?” or “to whom should I return the book to?”. Two questions are similar but radical at core. The first question referred to his book, and the second one referred (back) to him. Assuming you are going out with your college friends, and your mother does not know who/ whom him/her/they are. She may ask “who are you going out with?”, and if she does, she may change her question “with whom you are going out with?” She is now referring to them- the companion group instead. The use of whom was formal such as to whom it may concern – a polite opening for letters addressing to an unknown group of representatives.

Similarly to Whom, there is another interesting aspect about Whilst. The dictionary defined it as same as while. Most people would substitute between while and whilst as Whilst is a British English. But according to some British Native Speakers from northern England, it shall refer to something rather than a specific period. Therefore, it is not interchangeable. Let’s compare the following examples. “Whilst I was cleaning the living room, the phone rang.” | “While I was cleaning the living room, the phone rang.” Now filtering by yourself the differences between whilst and while, you might have spotted something. With whilst, it referred to the thing in action as another thing maneuvered. How about while? While in this statement seemed to have a broader spectrum. You could determine as a specific period of the simultaneous actions; you could also specify actions associated in that period. Overall, whilst and while are not identical.

The lesson on interrogatives and -WH words is essential for demonstrating a strong understanding of English. You can ask questions more confidently by thinking about the kind of answer you expect. Instead of pushing someone into an uncomfortable emotional state, you can appeal to their thoughts and encourage them to respond openly and honestly. In the section on interrogatives, we examined how tone and structure shape the answers we expect. Later, in the section on -WH words, we showed how these words help us identify the specific information we want. We then focused on whom and whilst in greater detail. From now on, you should feel more confident about asking questions, even when the answer may not be entirely clear. Do not be afraid to ask, because you will never learn or gain experience without doing so.

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